By Gary Lawless, Winnipeg Free Press
February 18, 2010
WINNIPEG— So far, so good for the Joe Mack/Paul LaPolice regime. They got their man.
Handling the next step, however, is far more important and will say a lot more about the future of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
LaPolice the head coach identified Steven Jyles, the lone free agent quarterback in this year’s Canadian Football League market, as a possible contender for the vacant No. 1 job in Bomberland, and Mack the general manager went out and got him.
“We don’t have anything signed yet, but (Bombers assistant GM) Ross Hodgkinson and I are moving toward a deal. I expect to have something done in the next 24 hours . . . we’re on the way to a deal,” agent Ferrell Elliott said in a phone conversation Thursday.
Nice work. Give the new fellows, along with Hodgkinson, credit for a job well done. They offered Jyles a similar package to the one the Saskatchewan Roughriders did and then won out in the pitch and woo contest.
Following up that victory with a well thought out strategy needs to come next.
Let’s hope LaPolice can engineer an environment where Jyles and Stefan LeFors can compete for the No. 1 job and then support one another as the season plays out.Painting Jyles as a saviour and placing unreasonable expectations on an unproven commodity would be a mistake. A mistake that has been made in these parts before but one that can easily be avoided.
The first words out of LaPolice’s mouth following an official announcement on Jyles should not be, “Steven’s my quarterback.”
Pushing one of the two into the top job prior to camp and leaving the man to live or die all alone is a mistake. One we saw play out with disastrous results last season.
Former Bombers coach Mike Kelly had watched LeFors as a backup during his time as a receivers coach with the Edmonton Eskimos and traded for him in one of his first acts as the new head coach of the Bombers. Almost immediately, the unproven LeFors was put into a sink-or-swim situation. The opportunity to tread water for a while went whooshing out of town the moment Kelly released veteran Kevin Glenn, in effect cutting the ropes on any parachute LeFors might need.
In recent years the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have twice made deals to acquire backup quarterbacks with hopes of turning them into starters. Once to unprecedented success and once in a failure that was a symptom in a disease that eventually led to the fall of a budding empire.
History buffs will recall Brendan Taman putting together a deal prior to the 2000 season that brought Khari Jones to Winnipeg and eventually led to one of the most successful quarterbacking runs this team has ever seen.
Jones took the Bombers to a Grey Cup in 2001, just his second season here.
The next season, with LaPolice calling the plays as offensive co-ordinator, Jones threw for 46 touchdowns.
The foundation for that success was a quiet entry into the system and a chance to compete for the job with incumbent Kerwin Bell. Jones eventually took over and made a name for himself in the CFL.
Last season, Kelly installed LeFors before camp had broken and it failed.
LeFors got hurt early in the season and struggled to run an antiquated offence. When LeFors stalled, there was no other answer in town and Kelly had to sign veteran Michael Bishop in a failed attempt to save the season.
Many other things went wrong for Kelly but the LeFors debacle got the ball rolling downhill towards an inevitable disaster.
So take a breath, Mr. LaPolice, give Jyles a playbook and tell him to learn it. Tell the rest of the city a decision on the Blue Bombers quarterbacking situation will come at the end of camp and be open for evaluation as time goes along.
Jyles with thank you for it and eventually you’ll thank yourself for it.
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